Maineah

Strange question, guess I had never thought of a motor home as a trailer. You would probable have to get some one to fabricate some type of plate for a tow bar the bumper will never hold it and have you thought about breaks your trailer most likely had electric breaks and your motor home won't. You maybe looking at 5 to 6 thousand pounds with no breaks of it's own. With a manual trans it is not as much of an issue as an automatic but still for long distance towing it would be a real good ideal to remove the drive shaft. With out the engine running there is no oil movement in the transmission so the rear bearing and the front of the main shaft would get no lube.

If it is over full it is going to force fuel out, the tanks are old technology and can be over filled. The newer tanks have chambers in them that make it very difficult to over fill them. The entire ideal is to reduce hydrocarbon emissions this is why the caps are sealed against pressure and that is why the canisters have purge lines to vent off the vapors to the engine. If your canister is overflowing and the tank is not full you have a problem. Pressure will build in the tank no matter what you do gas comes out of the ground close to 55 degrees so when it heats it expands. I have no ideal how to calculate the expansion rate but I would bet that you could gain a gallon or more of volume with expanding fuel and it has to go some where.

Hot, (warmed up) .010 intake and .020 exhaust.

This defiantly is a RE? It is not carbureted? If it is fuel injected the only connection to the engine from the canister is a small vacuum line. It is the vent for the canister. The canister is designed not to allow fuel to be introduced into the engine that’s why it runs out the hose. The vacuum line is tiny about 1/8” it vents vapor into the engine at a very small rate to vent the tank, it is vented prior to the throttle plate so it does not see vacuum at idle. I think you have reversed fuel lines particularly if the tank or fuel pump has been replaced. I believe the tank vent line is at the top of the tank and the fuel return line (all fuel injected systems pump more fuel then the engine needs) extends deeper into the tank so if the deeper line is hooked to the canister when pressure builds in the tank it is forcing raw fuel not vapor into the canister. I can’t say for sure if it is possible to force fuel through the tiny vacuum line but it may explain why it has to be driven to make it run poorly. Now if it is carbureted the answer is simple the carb is also vented to the canister if there is a issue with the carb (leaking float valve) it will fill the canister and flood the engine at the same time. By the way we have had 10% alcohol here in Maine for years my canister does not overflow.

I found those silly locks to be a real pain and some times they felt like they were locked and were not and I would look back in the mirror only to see the doors flapping like wings on a bird. Half of mine had been replaced with diffirent keys so I had a fist full of keys. I replaced the whole lot with non locking butterfly type handle catches only about 3 or 4 dollars they work great. Any RV outfit would have them. If you have a need to lock them any good lock smith will have key blanks and often have keys just by the number stamped on them. I would not store any thing of value in the hatches you can open them with a screw driver.

Finding a new one probably won't happen there are several salvage yards that cater to motor homes perhaps that might be worth a try. Try a search on this site I think there is a list of motor home salvage yards.

Yes you can add a battery and yes the alternator will charge it and the isolator should not be an issue. If you are not running inverters there should be not need to add batteries just running lights and the water pump your battery should last a week or more. Like some one else said replace the coach battery with a 120 amp hour deep cycle that should be more then enough. If you need more power be sure you have some method of venting an add on battery they produce hydrogen gas and can go boom I would not put it in the cab.

Is it an automatic? If so try moving the shifter a bit when it acts up.

Check your engine grounds first. If you have a set of jumper cables connect one to the negative battery post and the other to the engine and try it for awhile. The problem you discribe sounds like a very common Toyota starter problem, inside the starter are copper contacts that are replaceable most places will try to sell you a starter but if you take it to a starter, alternator and battery shop they will know about the contacts pretty cheap fix. 15 min. job with the starter off. They are nifty starters and seldom any thing other then the contacts go bad.

They do shift down a lot, any hill at 60 will cause it to down shift the wind resistance at 60 MPH is outrageous (it is a bit of a brick) so adding a hill does it in. If it shifts at normal speeds on a flat road it probably is adjusted correctly. It should shift about like the family sedan on a flat road. If you find it shifting a lot turn the overdrive off until you find flatter roads. 80% of fuel economy starts with the right foot it takes a light touch to make the Toyota stay in a higher gear. A fully loaded 6000+ pound Toyota MH will get 13 to 15 MPG or about twice as much as your friends V10 Ford motor home.

I think you'll see the biggest gain with the carb. the stock one leaves a bit to be desired. How is your state about emissions?

Go for it I live in Maine and have been to that area many times can't be beat. The trails at the park are wonderful great for biking. There are many outstanding camp grounds I have never heard bad words about any of them. Sea food to die for you'll love it don't forget the camera.

Your best bet would be a rusty 2wd truck the 4X4 trans won't work for what you want to do. With a 5spd truck you'll have all the parts you need instead of having to run back and forth to the junk yard. The 22RE's are fuel injected and would require the ECM and wiring and fuel tank and pump..... Why not rebuild the 20R and stick a high torque cam in it you would know exactly what you have with probably a lot less aggravation they actually were pretty good motors.

I agree the bigger brakes are an asset if you can find them.

Remember the transmission is cooled by the engine coolant and bolted right to it so it's going to run near engine temp 235 is a little warm though I would expect to see that on a big modern Chevy, working it hard may drive it that high. Where is your sensor mounted? If you are measuring it right at the pump discharge it will read higher best place is in the pan. Granted the cooler the better but I would not loose sleep over it flush it out every 30K and it should last a long time.

Wow nice job Greg. I was born and razed on the Chesapeake bay and I thought old boats were bad but that was before I owned a 27 year old motor home! Good luck with the A/C.

Fairly serious inverter 1000watt AC 120 volt power out. If it's any good you just saved your self around $400. You'll need some pretty heavy cables to hook it up to get your 1000 watts and it will draw down your battery at that load pretty fast but what it does is make house hold power from 12 volt batteries. If you have no use for it I'm sure some one on the site would like to have it.

185/14 is the stock tire size you need to get the car tires off as soon as you can. Most will be marked LT (light truck) in a load range "D"

Actually he has a post on this page just look in the middle for the posters name "buick"

I got to tell you I put wood floors in mine and took them out and put carpet back in. I know a lot of people have the laminate floors and love them but I found the carpet to be more comfortable and quieter. Personal opinion, every one has their likes and dislikes all of the floors if done well have their own appeal. The drill with the carpet replacement came with a general 23 year old motor home upgrade I pretty much redid the entire interior. I wonder if they still sell avocado colored refrigerators? Live it up it's your home away from home have a look at buick's pictures on this site his is pretty extreme but it will give you an ideal of just what you can do.

Any thing for a BMW is expensive! Just kidding no matter what you install other then Toyota will involve some fabrication. I would do some measurements to make sure what ever you pick is some what close to the size of the Toyota seats so you would be able to get some thing close to the same latitude of adjustment.

Most of the newer radios are DIN mounts and will fit fine. I would buy the connector kit to match the radio to the Toyota they are about $15 simple plug in real easy most car radio stores have them. I have a JVC with remote control I love it I can operate the radio from the coach.

V6 has a belt 100K max and think about a water pump and drive belts at the same time.

The deal with the canister on a 22RE or 6 cylinder is to vent the fuel tank but it is older technology so if you cram more fuel in the tank then is necessary it probably will force fuel out of the canister when it is hot out. Cold fuel hot air it has to expand. The fuel system is sealed and should be, the cap is not vented but the tank is through the canister. The running engine burns the vapor and vents the tank with virtually no effect. The canister can deal with small amounts of liquid fuel that is why there is charcoal inside of it to absorb the liquid fuel that maybe forced in to it.

That is a famous oil leak on the 22RE's and boy do they leak a lot! The seal is actually is in the oil pump if the pump was not removed and just the seal replaced it maybe leaking between the case and the pump housing best bet is to remove the pump replace the sealing ring behind the pump install a new seal and put it back together. Be sure to have a good look at the pulley and make sure there is not a grove worn in it where the seal rides.